Improvement in corset-clasps



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES I. MACLEAN, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

IMPROVEMENT IN CORSET-CLASPS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 144,689, dated November 18, 1873; application filed March 10, 1873.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JAMES I. MACLEAN, of the city of Brooklyn, in the county of Kings and State of New York, have invented a certain novel and useful Improvement in Clasps for Uniting the Fronts of Corsets, Oorselets, or Stays; and I hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, which are lettered to correspond with, and form a part of, theespecication.

To enable the public to understand the nature of my said invention, and those skilled in the :mechanic arts to construct the same, I will describe it as follows, to wit:

Figure 1 represents a pair of wire clasps, A, having the hooks and eyes 1 2 3 4 formed of the same piece of tempered steel or brass wire, either liat or round, as the body of the clasp itself.

These steel or brass-wire clasps, or busks, may be formed of round wire and flattened upon the anvil in the form shown at Fig. 1, which is a nickel-plated steel-wire busk, made by hand; but, when made by machinery, the zigzag bars 1^ r must be as close together as possible.

Fig. 2 is a section of a nickel-plated wire clasp, made of finer wire-say, No. 17--and s rendered more rigid by under and over laying the alternate zigzag bars r' r', or otherwise securing the flat steel or brass-wire strips .s s to support and stiften the flexible clasps A.

The advantages of my wire corset-hooks over the ordinary steel clasps are, iirst, they yield to every movement of the body without cramping the same, and each turn of the wire being rounded and smooth prevents cutting the garments or person of the wearer, and the corsets wear much longer from the fact that the wire clasp entirely overcomes the cutting properties of the at steel and riveted clasps that are in common use.

The novelty of my invention consists in the construction of wire busks or clasps, to be used in lieu of the well-known flat steel clasps 'of commerce for uniting corsets or stays, the

hooks and eyes or loops being formed of the same piece of wire as the body of a clasp itself; therefore What I claim as new and useful, and wish to protect by Letters Patent of the United States, is-

1. The wire busk or clasp A A', provided with hooks and eyes l 2 3 4, forming integral parts of the same, substantially as Vand for the purpose set forth.

2. In combination with the clasp, construct ed substantially as described, thestrengthening-strip s, arranged as set forth.

In testimony whereof I hereunto subscribe my name in the presence of two witnesses.

JAMES P. MACLEAN.

Witnesses: i

GHAs. E. PLATT, ANNIE M. KLErEER. 

